Today's Scripture Reading (August 1, 2026): Ezekiel 8
As a culture, we react
negatively to the concept of jealousy. B. C. Forbes, the Scottish financial
writer and the founder of Forbes magazine, even called jealousy a "mental
cancer." Saint Augustine argued that anyone who experienced jealousy was also "incapable of love."
So it is a little surprising to have the word applied to God. Yet jealousy is
applied to God in several places. So the only question that we can ask is this:
when we speak of jealousy as a characteristic, is that jealousy the same as the
jealousy that we experience as part of the human race? And the answer to the
question is a qualified no.
The jealousy we react
negatively to is an illogical emotion that causes so much damage in our lives.
This jealousy is closely related to a lack of trust. Forbes and Augustine are
both right; this kind of jealousy is a cancer that prohibits the experience of
love. This human jealousy is the green-eyed monster, which reacts with too
little evidence and damages relationships that could be healthy if not for it. This
kind of jealousy is always self-directed and selfish.
God's jealousy is
different. For starters, it is never based on a lack of trust, nor is it
selfish. God's jealousy is always in defense of his creation, grounded in a
covenant he has made with his people. Because of this covenant, God and his
message are to be carried to the world. God's words to Abraham at the beginning
of the story were that all of the earth would be blessed through God's blessing
of Abraham. God loves the world he has created and desires to be a blessing,
but the path of this blessing was always supposed to be through a group of
people.
However, the people
rejected God, and therefore, the blessing that was meant for the world was
never given. And this is what aroused God's jealousy. The people, along with
the world God loved, were suffering, and for God, there was no response but
jealousy. It was not a selfish jealousy but rather one borne out of love for
his creation.
God gives Ezekiel a vision.
He takes him to the temple gate and shows him the image in the Temple that had made
God jealous and caused Israel to lose the power that should have been theirs.
We don't know what the idol was; most experts believe that it was likely an
image of Baal, but it doesn't really matter. Any image of a false deity placed
in the Temple would cause God to become jealous and his blessing to cease
flowing to his creation.
The people whom God wants
to use now to bless the world include the Christian church. But that can only
happen if we are willing to put our idols aside and let God bless us. Any other
response will do nothing but arouse God's jealousy once more.
Tomorrow's
Scripture Reading: Ezekiel 9
